The Good Enough Job – Reclaiming Life from Work
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Leader’s Edge: Leadership
The Good Enough Job – Reclaiming Life from Work*
By: Simone Stolzoff
Penguin Books, 2023
272 Pages
*As an Amazon Associate Missio Nexus earns from qualifying purchases.
Summary
In this excellent and thought-provoking book, the author argues that from the moment we ask children what they want to “be” when they grow up, we exalt the dream job as if it were life’s ultimate objective. The result is that many peoples’ identities become deeply entangled with their jobs, with predictable damage to happiness, wellbeing, and sometimes professional success because of burnout.
The book provides an interesting history summary of how work has come to dominate Americans’ lives and why we find it so difficult to let go. Stolzoff also identifies myths that keep people chained to their jobs. Based on highly interesting interviews with Michelin star chefs, Wall Street bankers, overwhelmed teachers, and other workers in the American economy, Stolzoff exposes what we lose when we expect work to be more than a job. Rather than treat work as a calling or a dream, he explores what it would take to reframe work as a part of life rather than the entirety of life. What does it mean for a job to be good enough?
The Good Enough Job makes an urgent case for reclaiming one’s life in a world centered around work.
The author’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and other publications. He is a graduate of Stanford and The University of Pennsylvania.
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